'World In Motion' Photographs At Cooley

The new show at Cooley Gallery in Old Lyme of photographs by Peter Daitch is called "World in Motion." It could just as easily have been named "Camera in Motion."

"This style sort of evolved. I saw an image a friend of my daughter made, a blurry image made at night. It struck me, the motion of it," Daith said. "I started to play with one- to two-second exposures."

In addition to the long shutter speed, Daitch moves his Canon EOS 5D gently, back and forth, up and down, in a wavy motion, whichever he feels suits the subject matter. The resulting photos are abstract flashes of vivid color variations, which don't so much replicate the subject as express its essence.

He started in his wife's garden at their home in Lyme, photographing hydrangeas, delphiniums, petunias, salvia, autums leaves against a clear blue sky, color-enhancing some of them. Then he moved out of the garden to photograph storms, mountaintops, seaside sunrises.

His photo of a yacht contains no discernible yacht, but the blue of the hull, the brown of the teak railing, a blur of a mast and a boom. His vision of a catamaran is a smudge of bright orange against an azure sky.

His "After the Storm," though black, white and gray, is especially dramatic, showing an ominous blotch of darkness underneath white clouds that call to mind galloping horses.